Google AMP: What You Need to Know

Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is an open source platform that utilizes its own HTML coding, programming, and cache to allow static pages to load more quickly on mobile devices. What it boils down to is having a website that customers prefer. Imagine for a moment that a potential customer is looking for your company’s product or service. They find you, as well as a competitor, and click on both links. If your competitors page loads more quickly, it is much more likely they will choose your competitor’s company to do their business.

Google AMP has gained a lot of attention from business owners, website builders, and everyday people who have a lot to say about its potential.

Google AMP and its Application

One of the biggest questions that people have is “How can AMP be used?” Currently, it only works for static (non-changing) pages. This makes it ideal for news and company websites. However, it is not compatible with pages that change. For example, if a blog site updates their homepage with new posts, it would not be compatible. This certainly limits its use in some areas, but it will be interesting to see how Google AMP will be used in the future.

Its Use on Mobile Devices

The term “mobile devices” does include smartphones, but is inclusive of devices like tablets. Most of the time when people are looking for a product or service, they are doing so from a mobile platform. In this instance, using Google AMP with your web page allows it to load more quickly than it would with more traditional programs.

Whether or Not AMP Will Reduce App Usage

People are also talking about the impact that Google AMP may or may not have on app usage. When searching for pages on mobile devices, it is not uncommon for people to browse through apps rather than a basic browser. For example, someone might prefer using Google Chrome over the browser that was included on their phone or tablet. It is not believed that AMP is going to reduce app usage, however, because people will most likely still have preferences for a specific app for browsing.

Google AMP and Ecommerce Webpages

With the right programming tweaks, even e-commerce pages could load faster using AMP. E-commerce pages tend to have needs far more complex than AMP would allow. In order for it to run effectively, it is highly like that a business would have to give up some of their features. For smaller businesses, it may be possible to trim e-commerce needs down by that much. Unfortunately, even small e-commerce pages would have to make sacrifices. Basically, AMP would only work for an e-commerce page if you are willing to give up some features.

How Google AMP Stacks Up Against Facebook News Articles and Apple News

Apple News and Facebook News Articles are among Google’s competition. As for Google, it eliminates the need for JavaScript codes, and every user that uses Google News is able to see AMP’s stories. Facebook Instant Articles is only visible to users that use Facebook’s mobile app, which is a downside, but it is able to provide a faster load time and better page design. Apple News is a preinstalled application that can be found on any iPhone but falls short in terms of appearance and loading speed.

Now that you have an idea of what people are saying, what questions do you have left? Google AMP is definitely something worth looking into if you own a website.